Government getting funds and “benefits in kind” from private interest groups determined to get what they want out of the government… what a surprise.
Just some of the info / facts from the article
> More than £13m has been poured into a growing network of MPs’ interest groups by private firms including healthcare bodies, arms companies and tech giants, fuelling concerns over the potential for backdoor influence.
> Analysis by the Guardian and openDemocracy found that more than half the total £25m in funding for all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) since 2018 has come from the private sector.
> Bryant, whose standards committee has opened an inquiry into the system, added: “It feels as if every MP wants their own APPG, and every lobbying company sees an APPG as an ideal way of making a quick buck out of a trade or industry body.”
> APPGs are informal groups representing MPs’ and peers’ interests, from China and Russia to cancer, digital regulation, longevity and jazz. They must be chaired by MPs but are often run or funded by lobbyists and corporate donors seeking to influence government policy.
> **The obesity APPG, which has sought to promote medical interventions for obesity, received £178,500 to £183,000 between 2019 and 2021 from three private healthcare companies that make or promote gastric bands or drugs used in obesity surgery and treatment**: Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic and Novo Nordisk. The support was used to pay for a lobbyist, HealthComms Consulting, to run the APPG’s secretariat. The lobbyist says on its website that the APPG **promoted calls for “a shift away from the ‘move more, eat less’ mentality prevalent in obesity thinking and better utilisation of treatment for obesity and access to services”**. It adds that the APPG **“had direct input into the government’s obesity strategy published in July 2020 through meeting with No 10 officials and the development of a top 10 policy wishlist”. The company did not respond to a request for comment.**
Yeah let’s not get people to be fitter by moving more and eating less, let’s focus on getting them to pay for operations that we provide and make profits from
> **MPs from the armed forces APPG took a trip to Bosnia last autumn as it stood on the brink of conflict, with hospitality and transport part-funded by an arms company, Lockheed Martin**, and the defence support company CAE. Lockheed Martin’s head of government affairs accompanied them for one night and to a dinner. **A Tory MP on the visit, James Sunderland, subsequently spoke in a Commons debate about the need for the UK to be “part of the solution in the country [Bosnia]” without declaring the trip’s funding**. James Gray, the APPG’s chairman, said the trip should have been declared as paid for by the APPG, of whom Lockheed Martin and CAE are “merely sponsors”. He said the companies “had nothing to gain” from the trip, and the subscribers to the APPG “do so because they believe in having a good group of MPs and peers who understand defence”. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said funding for the visit “would have come from the APPG’s funds and not specifically from Lockheed Martin UK’s contributions”. Sunderland did not comment.
> **In areas related to the climate crisis, the secretariat of the sustainable aviation APPG is an alliance of airlines and airports, while energy companies provided tens of thousands of pounds in the past year for the consultancy running the net zero APPG**. Graham Brady, a senior Tory who chairs the sustainable aviation APPG, said it was formed to support collaboration between the aviation sector and parliament, adding: “The benefits in kind reported on the register represent routine secretarial work carried out to facilitate meetings of the group. No direct funding is involved and no benefits in kind have been given to members of the group.”
> A thriving industry has also emerged around professional lobbying companies, sponsored by corporate interests, helping to produce reports seeking to influence policy, fund dinners or drinks, and take parliamentarians on free trips abroad.
> The Guardian and openDemocracy analysis found that since 2018, APPGs have declared £5m in cash funding and £18.3m-£20.2m of “benefits in kind” support, which covers the provision of services, secretarial work, trips or hospitality. More than half of the sponsorship and donations – about £13m – came from private companies.
> APPGs have been at the centre of controversies but remain largely self-policed.
> The largest APPG, the parliamentary internet, communications and technology forum (Pictfor), received more than £125,000 worth of benefits-in-kind support last year alone, from firms including Google, Facebook, TikTok, BT, Amazon and Huawei.
> Analysis of a range of other APPGs underlines the links between the MPs’ groups and private firms.
> **The secretariat for the British bioethanol APPG is listed as Ensus UK, which operates one of the UK’s largest biofuel plants. After the APPG submitted a report to the government calling for the introduction of E10 fuel, which uses biofuel of the type manufactured by Ensus, a meeting was held between the APPG’s chair, a government minister and the commercial director of Ensus UK**. Ensus said its support and “modest financial contribution” towards the APPG’s work on E10 was a matter of public record.
> New coronavirus-related APPGs include business in a pandemic (Covid) world, which has declared £49,000 of benefits-in-kind support for its secretariat, the lobbyist Wychwood Consulting, from a Covid diagnostics company, Cignpost. Neither Wychwood nor Cignpost responded to requests for comment.
> **Wychwood also gets £10,000 to £12,000 of benefits-in-kind sponsorship from Yoti Ltd, a facial recognition company, to run the APPG on digital identity**. Yoti said it was open about its sponsorship of the APPG, which provides a unique service to parliamentarians as a forum to discuss and educate them on digital identity.
Legal bribes. They’re not bribes when politicians get them.
What’s become apparent recently is that British politicians are incredibly cheap
Sometimes you wonder why people bother to vote because, quite obviously, a lot of MPs are for sale to the highest bidder.
This is an assault on democracy, one of several at the moment.
4 comments
Government getting funds and “benefits in kind” from private interest groups determined to get what they want out of the government… what a surprise.
Just some of the info / facts from the article
> More than £13m has been poured into a growing network of MPs’ interest groups by private firms including healthcare bodies, arms companies and tech giants, fuelling concerns over the potential for backdoor influence.
> Analysis by the Guardian and openDemocracy found that more than half the total £25m in funding for all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) since 2018 has come from the private sector.
> Bryant, whose standards committee has opened an inquiry into the system, added: “It feels as if every MP wants their own APPG, and every lobbying company sees an APPG as an ideal way of making a quick buck out of a trade or industry body.”
> APPGs are informal groups representing MPs’ and peers’ interests, from China and Russia to cancer, digital regulation, longevity and jazz. They must be chaired by MPs but are often run or funded by lobbyists and corporate donors seeking to influence government policy.
> **The obesity APPG, which has sought to promote medical interventions for obesity, received £178,500 to £183,000 between 2019 and 2021 from three private healthcare companies that make or promote gastric bands or drugs used in obesity surgery and treatment**: Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic and Novo Nordisk. The support was used to pay for a lobbyist, HealthComms Consulting, to run the APPG’s secretariat. The lobbyist says on its website that the APPG **promoted calls for “a shift away from the ‘move more, eat less’ mentality prevalent in obesity thinking and better utilisation of treatment for obesity and access to services”**. It adds that the APPG **“had direct input into the government’s obesity strategy published in July 2020 through meeting with No 10 officials and the development of a top 10 policy wishlist”. The company did not respond to a request for comment.**
Yeah let’s not get people to be fitter by moving more and eating less, let’s focus on getting them to pay for operations that we provide and make profits from
> **MPs from the armed forces APPG took a trip to Bosnia last autumn as it stood on the brink of conflict, with hospitality and transport part-funded by an arms company, Lockheed Martin**, and the defence support company CAE. Lockheed Martin’s head of government affairs accompanied them for one night and to a dinner. **A Tory MP on the visit, James Sunderland, subsequently spoke in a Commons debate about the need for the UK to be “part of the solution in the country [Bosnia]” without declaring the trip’s funding**. James Gray, the APPG’s chairman, said the trip should have been declared as paid for by the APPG, of whom Lockheed Martin and CAE are “merely sponsors”. He said the companies “had nothing to gain” from the trip, and the subscribers to the APPG “do so because they believe in having a good group of MPs and peers who understand defence”. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said funding for the visit “would have come from the APPG’s funds and not specifically from Lockheed Martin UK’s contributions”. Sunderland did not comment.
> **In areas related to the climate crisis, the secretariat of the sustainable aviation APPG is an alliance of airlines and airports, while energy companies provided tens of thousands of pounds in the past year for the consultancy running the net zero APPG**. Graham Brady, a senior Tory who chairs the sustainable aviation APPG, said it was formed to support collaboration between the aviation sector and parliament, adding: “The benefits in kind reported on the register represent routine secretarial work carried out to facilitate meetings of the group. No direct funding is involved and no benefits in kind have been given to members of the group.”
> A thriving industry has also emerged around professional lobbying companies, sponsored by corporate interests, helping to produce reports seeking to influence policy, fund dinners or drinks, and take parliamentarians on free trips abroad.
> The Guardian and openDemocracy analysis found that since 2018, APPGs have declared £5m in cash funding and £18.3m-£20.2m of “benefits in kind” support, which covers the provision of services, secretarial work, trips or hospitality. More than half of the sponsorship and donations – about £13m – came from private companies.
> APPGs have been at the centre of controversies but remain largely self-policed.
> The largest APPG, the parliamentary internet, communications and technology forum (Pictfor), received more than £125,000 worth of benefits-in-kind support last year alone, from firms including Google, Facebook, TikTok, BT, Amazon and Huawei.
> Analysis of a range of other APPGs underlines the links between the MPs’ groups and private firms.
> **The secretariat for the British bioethanol APPG is listed as Ensus UK, which operates one of the UK’s largest biofuel plants. After the APPG submitted a report to the government calling for the introduction of E10 fuel, which uses biofuel of the type manufactured by Ensus, a meeting was held between the APPG’s chair, a government minister and the commercial director of Ensus UK**. Ensus said its support and “modest financial contribution” towards the APPG’s work on E10 was a matter of public record.
> New coronavirus-related APPGs include business in a pandemic (Covid) world, which has declared £49,000 of benefits-in-kind support for its secretariat, the lobbyist Wychwood Consulting, from a Covid diagnostics company, Cignpost. Neither Wychwood nor Cignpost responded to requests for comment.
> **Wychwood also gets £10,000 to £12,000 of benefits-in-kind sponsorship from Yoti Ltd, a facial recognition company, to run the APPG on digital identity**. Yoti said it was open about its sponsorship of the APPG, which provides a unique service to parliamentarians as a forum to discuss and educate them on digital identity.
Legal bribes. They’re not bribes when politicians get them.
What’s become apparent recently is that British politicians are incredibly cheap
Sometimes you wonder why people bother to vote because, quite obviously, a lot of MPs are for sale to the highest bidder.
This is an assault on democracy, one of several at the moment.